Genetic diversity and connectivity of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) found in the Brazil and Chile–Peru wintering grounds and the South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur) feeding ground

As species recover from exploitation, continued assessments of connectivity and population structure are warranted to provide information for conservation and management. This is particularly true in species with high dispersal capacity, such as migratory whales, where patterns of connectivity could change rapidly. Here we build on a previous long-term, large-scale collaboration on southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) to combine new (nnew) and published (npub) mitochondrial (mtDNA) and microsatellite genetic data from all major wintering grounds and, uniquely, the South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur: SG) feeding grounds. Specifically, we include data from Argentina (npub mtDNA/microsatellite = 208/46), Brazil (nnew mtDNA/microsatellite = 50/50), South Africa (nnew mtDNA/microsatellite = 66/77, npub mtDNA/microsatellite = 350/47), Chile–Peru (nnew mtDNA/microsatellite = 1/1), the Indo-Pacific (npub mtDNA/microsatellite = 769/126), and SG (npub mtDNA/microsatellite = 8/0, nnew mtDNA/microsatellite = 3/11) to investigate the position of previously unstudied habitats in the migratory network: Brazil, SG, and Chile–Peru. These new genetic data show connectivity between Brazil and Argentina, exemplified by weak genetic differentiation and the movement of 1 genetically identified individual between the South American grounds. The single sample from Chile–Peru had an mtDNA haplotype previously only observed in the Indo-Pacific and had a nuclear genotype that appeared admixed between the Indo-Pacific and South Atlantic, based on genetic clustering and assignment algorithms. The SG samples were clearly South Atlantic and were more similar to the South American than the South African wintering grounds. This study highlights how international collaborations are critical to provide context for emerging or recovering regions, like the SG feeding ground, as well as those that remain critically endangered, such as Chile–Peru.The Indo-Pacific (Australia/New Zealand) dataset comes from original publication Carroll et al 2015 The Argentina and part of the South Africna dataset comes from original publication Carroll et al 2019 Funding provided by: EU BEST 2.0*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Medium grant 1594Funding provided by: UK DARWIN DPLUS*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Grant 057Funding provided by: World Wildlife FundCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100001399Award Number: GB107301Funding provided by: Global Greengrants Fund*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: Brazilian National Research Council*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: 144064/98-7 and 146609/1999-9Funding provided by: World Wildlife Fund - Brazil*Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Funding provided by: Grantová Agentura, Univerzita KarlovaCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007543Award Number: 1140217Funding provided by: Royal Society of New ZealandCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001509Award Number: Rutherford Discovery FellowshipFunding provided by: Univerzita Karlova v PrazeCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007397Award Number: 1140217Funding provided by: Natural Environment Research CouncilCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000270Funding provided by: Pacific Whale FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: Funding provided by: Brazilian National Research CouncilCrossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: n° 144064/98-7Funding provided by: Brazilian National Research CouncilCrossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: n° 146609/1999-9Funding provided by: EU BEST 2.0Crossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Medium grant 1594Funding provided by: UK DARWIN DPLUSCrossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: Grant 057Funding provided by: Global Greengrants FundCrossref Funder Registry ID: Funding provided by: World Wildlife Fund - BrazilCrossref Funder Registry ID:Collection and laboratory methods described in publication. Data archived here described as follows. 1. Microsatellite data The repository contains microsatellite genotypes for all samples used in the analysis in genepop format: SRW_All_Data_SamplingLocationGenepop.txt The order of populations in this file is as follows: South Africa (n = 123) Argentina (n = 46) Brazil (n = 50) South Georgia (n = 11) Chile (n = 1) Australia (n = 78) New Zealand (n = 51) As per Table 1 in the original manuscript. 2. Mitochondrial DNA data This repository contains the mtDNA data in two formats: (1) excel spreadsheet with haplotype names, genbank accession numbers, references and accession numbers, with count of each haplotype per sampling location: Dryad_mtDNA_Hap_Frequencies.xlsx (2) Arlequin file linking haplotype counts and sequences in one file: 380bp_SGSRW_SouthAtlantic_Aug19.tx